Democracy and America

The United States is the most powerful nation on earth, politically, economically and militarily, but its political system is in many important respects unlike any other in the world. Aristotle called the rule of the many for the benefit of all citizens a “polity” and referred to the rule of many to benefit themselves as a “democracy”. The term democracy is derived from the Greek words demos (the people) and kratia (power or authority) and may be used to refer to any system of government that gives power to the people, either directly, or indirectly through elected representatives. Democracy is hard, perhaps the most complex and difficult of all forms of government. It is filled with tensions and contradictions, and requires that its members labor diligently to make it work. Democracy is not designed for efficiency, but for accountability; a democratic government may not be able to act as quickly as a dictatorship, but once committed to a course of action it can draw upon deep wellsprings of popular support. Democracy, certainly in America, is never a finished product, but is always evolving. The outer forms of government in the United States have altered little in two centuries, but once we look past the surface we discover great changes. Yet, most Americans believe that the basic principles underlying their government derive directly from notions first enunciated by the Framers. The Framers wanted to create a political system that involved placing the people at the center of power. Due to the vest size of the new nation, direct democracy, a system of government in which members of the polity meet to discuss all policy decisions and then agree to abide by majority rule, was unworkable. As more and more settlers came to the New World, many town meetings were replaced by a system of indirect democracy, a system of government that gives citizens the opportunity to vote for representatives who work on their behalf. Many citizens were uncomfortable with the term democracy because it made them think of people over-turning the government or like a mob rule. Instead, they preferred the term republic, a government rooted in the consent of the governed in which citizens elect leaders to represent their political interests. Today, representative democracies are more commonly called republics, and the words democracy and republic are used interchangeably. Yet, in the United States, we still pledge allegiance to our “republic”, not a democracy. James Madison also agreed as he stated in the Federalist #10 article. Madison states, "The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man”, so the cure is to control their effects. He makes an argument on how this is not possible in a pure democracy but possible in a republic. With pure democracy, he means a system in which every citizen votes directly for laws, and, with republic, he intends a society in which the citizens vote for an elite of representatives who then vote for laws. He indicates that the voice of the people pronounced by a body of representatives is more conformable to the interest of the community because common people’s decisions are affected by their self-interest. The representative democratic system devised by the Framers to govern the United States is based on a number of underlying concepts and distinguishing characteristics that sometimes conflict with each other. These ideas can be described as commonly shared attitudes, beliefs, and core values about how the government should operate. American political culture emphasizes the values of liberty and equality, popular consent, majority rule, popular sovereignty, individualism, and religious faith and freedom. In my opinion, Madison and other Framers did mean to limit democracy to some extent, not that democracy was wrong or bad. They wanted as much power to be given to the people as possible. As I stated before, a republic and a democracy go hand in hand and are very similar so it would be...

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...General Introduction
At the time of De Tocqueville’s departure from France and his visit to democratic America in 1831, social and political issues were on the rise in France. In the early 19th century, the methodological approach was developing, along with theories that had the potential to improve political policy, the status of women, and the conditions of labour. In a time of great political turmoil, the French regime had shifted from a monarchy state of power to a dictatorship and again to a monarchial state through a short span of time (Sage, 2010:11-13) This not only lead to political confusion and social conflicts in French society, but also led De Tocqueville to fear that democracy would lead to the deterioration of his valued aristocratic institutions and principles (Zeitlin, 2001:87).
At the same time that France was in a state of political turmoil, America had successfully developed a democratic state in which they could live. The predisposition for a dictatorial regime was not seen in the American revolution as it was in the French, and democracy allowed the country to grow and keep their individual freedom (Zeitlin, 2001:87). However, freedom was not found in all parts of America, as the institution of slavery, particularly in the Southern regions of America, was abundant (Zeitlin, 2001:91), along with oppression of women and Native American persons. Overall, the early...

...
Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States in the early part of the 19th century. His visit prompted his writing the book Democracy in America. In his book he expressed the ability to make democracy work. He traveled around the country and noted the biggest issues that America faced were: “a disproportionately high portion of power in the legislative branch, an abuse of or lack of love for freedom, an excessive drive for equality, individualism, and materialism”. He also recognized that the best way to offset those areas that were a threat to American Democracy are: “an independent and influential judiciary, a strong executive branch, local self-government, administration de-centralization, religion, well educated women, freedom of association, and freedom of the press.
Tocqueville that in the area of the legislator there is an overwhelming power that could lead to an oppressive governmental system, and without proper checks and balances this is an area where abuse of governmental power can be easily had. From the president, to the Senate and the Representatives he listed different aspects of their positions that could lead to the demise of American democracy.
Another area that Tocqueville also believed was pivotal, but is a more abstract hazard that faced democracies is the love of equality. He also believed that personal gain and private interest were the...

...eventually aided him in writing Democracy in America. While on official business to view the American penal system, Tocqueville got his first taste of democracy. When the twenty eight year old de Tocqueville returned to France he began writing Democracy in America. While composing it, Tocqueville has a specific audience and purpose in mind. In the 1830's the government in France was very unstable. Tocqueville's intentions for his book, Democracy in America, were to convince the French aristocracy that a democracy would be a superior form of government to a monarchy for the people of France. If this idea was exposed to and accepted by the aristocracy then it would eventually be accepted by the lower classes, and hopefully bring about permanent reform.
Achieving this purpose would be a difficult task and would require a very convincing work, which in would turn take a determined author. We can see how Tocqueville endeavors to achieve his goal by his use of rhetoric and persuasion, which, in Democracy in America, go hand in hand. Rhetorical strategies used by Tocqueville include a clear writing style, powerful comparison and contrasting, and expression of logical opinions, which foster deductive reasoning on the part of the reader.
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...An Exploration of Individualism
As Described By Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy In America
The classic work Democracy In America by Alexis de Tocqueville has been the reason for scholarly pursuit as well as strife within that same community. Through a brief examination of this text, several of Tocqueville’s arguments helped to define many of the constructs that made America what it was as well as those that have led to what it has become today. Of the many themes and ideas presented by Tocqueville, his thoughts on individualism struck the loudest chord with me.
Tocqueville describes America as a society of joiners because of the fact that it is a country almost entirely composed of immigrants. This, in addition to the pursuit and promise of “equality of conditions” that Americas touted as an unofficial theme, brought citizens from many classes together in closer proximity and relation. Although this sounds like a good thing, Tocqueville argued that with this blending of social classes and increased opportunity people would isolate themselves, "bond of human affections is extended and loosened" (p. 483). As people gained wealth and left behind the daily struggle to survive many sought out education and as a result of this enlightenment developed the "habit of always considering themselves in isolation" (p. 484).
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...Justice and Equality Cannot Coexist, For When One is Achieved the Other is Infringed Upon:
Equality, diversity, and democracy are the three components that America claims to revolve around, but unfortunately lacks. America is a nation filled with envy, rage, and such preposterous behaviors and actions. Since the founding of the nation, to the present of America, and according to the predicament of the future, this territorial notion that America abides by is slowly corrupting the nation.
Since the establishment of America equality was always an issue, but always an issue of avoidance. In the article Deconstructing America, Buchanan states, “As for the Africans, they arrived in 1619 in slave ship, and were not freed for 246 years. Then they were segregated for a century” (465). Buchanan stresses the idea that America claims to be a picture perfect nation where all is equal, but in reality they’ve lacked equality since their uprising. Another idea that Buchanan stresses elaborates more in the idea that equality has been an issue in America. In Buchanan’s article Deconstructing America, he refers to the English, the Virginians, and the Americans in this quote:
“They believed in superiority of their Christian faith and English culture and civilization. And they transplanted that unique faith, culture, and civilization to the...

...volumes of Democracy in America, written by Alexis de Tocqueville, stand as objective evaluations of the American democracy and society. In 1835 Tocqueville published his first volume which cast a positive light on how a modern democracy should operate; five years later, in 1840, the second volume was published to illustrate the dangers of despotism, and overly powerful centralized governments.
Tocqueville pursued his evaluation amidst a shift in French government from an aristocracy toward a more democratized nation. During his work within the courts of Versailles, Tocqueville developed a sense of strong liberalism as he knew that the aristocracy was bound to vanish. The shifting form of France’s government precipitated into a revolution, and Tocqueville saw a great opportunity and responsibility to analyze what lessons other democracies had learned so he could be part of leading France and other nations into governments that were modeled from the strengths of democracy while avoiding the weaknesses.
He traveled to the United States to examine the fine details of how each cog of the machine worked, to reveal the inadequacies, to project future problems, and to gather information about the struggles America faced throughout the development of our society. After his time in America, Tocqueville continued his studies in England in an effort to learn the...

...Insights on De Tocqueville's Democracy In America
It has been said that a French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville, who
visited the United States in the 1830's, "understood us" in a way that few
observers (foreign and domestic) have. Furthermore, Tocqueville's Democracy in
America is often cited by present-day critics because so many of the
observations in it seem extraordinarily suitable even more than one hundred and
fifty years later. Alexis de Tocqueville was born 1805 into a minor noble family,
in which his grandfather had been guillotined during the French Revolution. He
had come to the United States in 1831 to study the prison system, in which he
did not do, instead he wrote Democracy in America. He had stayed in the United
States through February 1832 for about nine months, so intrigued by democracy,
majority rule, and the absence of social hierarchy. Democracy in America was
first published in 1825, full of observations and interpretations, was written
as a sort of warning for European readers; "Is this what you want?" he asks.
This book was famous for two accurate predictions, one, the U.S. would someday
be a world power as would Russia, second, race would prove to be the most
intractable problem for the U.S.
One of Tocqueville's observations about the United States is that he
thought there is no country in the civilized...